This is a seriously powerful volume. Published by the World Bank Institute, it lays out a strategy for leveraging strengths and opportunities within India’s emerging knowledge economy.

This book is so well written and clearly organized that it could be a strategy document for any country, from China to Venezuela. Indeed, what I see in this book is the possibility of India becoming a knowledge “hub” nation, where its call centers make the leap up to becoming intelligence analysis centers, with Indians skilled in all languages, having access to all information all the time, and able to create distilled synethic knowledge–answers on demand–across all topics for all levels of users.

The six chapters, 12 appendices, and numerous figures and tables reflect the very highest quality of thinking, clarity, and purpose. This is an extraordinary reference, and I will read it again on my way to India in December, where we will be discussing the creation of a global Information Merchant Bank that builds on and exceeds what Google has been able to accomplish, by adding the human element–human translators, human finders, human analysts, human reporters.